NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
President Donald Trump scored a major legislative win after Congress cleared a sweeping housing bill aimed at expanding the nation’s supply of homes and lowering costs.
House lawmakers voted 358-32 in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote Tuesday to approve the Senate-passed measure with opposition coming solely from Republicans. Every Democrat present voted for the package.
The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, one of the most significant housing bills approved by Congress in decades, largely incorporates Trump’s proposal to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes — a measure designed to help individual buyers compete with private equity firms.
It would also streamline federal environmental reviews for housing, loosen regulations around the construction of factory-built homes, and incentivize local governments to reform their zoning laws to allow for more homebuilding, among its more than 45 provisions.
ONE IN THREE ADULTS UNDER 35 LIVES WITH PARENTS AS HOUSING COSTS SOAR, DATA SHOWS
Other sections would allocate federal grants to municipalities with a track record of constructing new homes and create a pilot program to help communities redevelop vacant properties.
“The package focuses on a simple idea of building more homes, which means lower costs and more expanded opportunities for all Americans,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., said Tuesday.
The president is expected to promptly sign the measure into law as soon as Wednesday.
Tuesday’s vote comes as home prices have surged in recent years, with the median nationwide price tag topping $400,000 and the median asking rent climbing above $1,760, representing an increase of 34.4% and 17.9%, respectively, since 2019, according to analysis from Realtor.com.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., brought the measure to the floor under a fast-track procedure known as suspension of the rules that required a two-thirds majority to secure passage.
In the end, more Democrats supported the legislation than Republicans.
I TRIED FOR YEARS TO BUY A HOME. WALL STREET ALWAYS BEAT ME — TRUMP MADE THE RIGHT CALL
Some of the more than two dozen conservatives voted against the housing bill in protest of the SAVE America Act not being attached to the package. That legislation — mandating voter identification requirements, cracking down on mail-in voting and barring men from women’s sports, among other provisions — has failed to clear the Senate’s legislative filibuster and has not received a vote in the House.
“The Senate cannot keep obstructing President Trump’s agenda while ignoring election integrity,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wrote on social media. “I call on my fellow colleagues to stand firm and honor their pledge.”
The group of conservatives has also advocated for the SAVE America Act to be paired with the reauthorization of a critical surveillance authority, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, though that is unlikely to materialize amid intraparty disagreement.
Some Republicans also opposed the Trump-backed measure, citing the inclusion of provisions offered by progressive Democrats.
“The Housing bill is full of big government garbage & spending,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wrote on social media.
The housing bill’s package comes after the House and Senate exhausted months ironing out disagreements about how to implement restrictions on private equity investors and a temporary ban on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) — an unrelated proposal sought by GOP privacy hawks.
Both chambers ultimately agreed to a provision that would restrict large investors owning more than 350 single-family homes from purchasing additional ones, while creating exceptions for the construction of rental properties. However, investors that exceed the new threshold would not be required to sell existing holdings.
Critics have argued that large investors are not the source of supply constraints, with those firms owning less than 1% of the nation’s housing stock, according to Parcl Labs.
Their ownership of single-family rental properties is slightly higher, ranging from 1% to 3%, with the presence of large investors highly concentrated in certain rental markets, including Jacksonville, Fla., (22%) and Phoenix (13%), according to a March Government Accountability Office report.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The housing bill’s passage comes as Republicans are facing electoral headwinds from voters who are souring on the current state of the economy and cost of living. But the soon-to-be law could give Republicans a concrete example taken to address housing affordability — a key issue for voters heading into November’s midterm elections.
Just 31% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a Fox News poll released last week. That was a 2-point improvement after the measure hit an all-time low of 29% in May.
Read the full article here
